Menu
Boldly Going Nowhere
Bret Burquest is a former award-winning columnist for The News (2001-2007) and author of four novels. He has lived in Minneapolis, Los Angeles, Miami, Atlanta, Kansas City, Memphis and the middle of the Arizona desert. After a life of blood, sweat and tears in big cities, he has finally found peace in northern Arkansas where he grows tomatoes, watches sunsets and occasionally shares the Secrets of the Universe (and beyond) with the rest of the world.
-
Land of the Giants
Posted Friday, February 15, 2019, at 10:19 AMI lived in southern California in 1975-1987. One night I watched a local TV report about the remains of giants discovered on Catalina island (just off the coast of L.A.) in the late 19th century. They were 7 to 9 feet tall, with red hair and had a double set of teeth. Their skulls were up to 6 times larger than a normal human skull... -
The Y2K Bug
Posted Wednesday, February 6, 2019, at 2:48 PMI spent 8 months working on a computer programming contract in Memphis in 1999, leading up to the potential disaster known in the computer industry as Y2K. There were lots of rumors about what might happen if the problem couldn’t be resolved. Some of the myths included:... -
Groundhog Day
Posted Thursday, January 31, 2019, at 6:25 PMFebruary 2 is Groundhog Day. In Punxsutawney, Penn., grown men and women congregate outside of a rodent burrow on this day and wait patiently for a groundhog named Punxsutawney Phil to emerge. Apparently, the people in Punxsutawney don’t have much of a life... -
The Ice Beast
Posted Tuesday, January 8, 2019, at 12:25 PM2January 2019 is the 10th anniversary of the ice storm of January 2009 which caused much damage and distress to those of us who live in north central Arkansas -- the following is a newspaper column I wrote back then, once I finally had electricity restored... -
HOLLYWOODLAND
Posted Tuesday, January 1, 2019, at 6:40 PMIn 1923, a land syndicate created a new housing development on the Hollywood hillside of the Santa Monica Mountains. In an attempt to flaunt their new development, they contracted the Crescent Sign Company to erect a large HOLLYWOODLAND sign on Mount Lee, which is also part of Griffith Park... -
Moose on the Loose
Posted Wednesday, December 26, 2018, at 12:07 PMThe summer I was in sixth grade, my family went on a camping trip to Yellowstone Park. We pitched our tents in the most remote official campsite, along a stream in the northeast corner of the park. After breakfast one morning, the four of us embarked on a hike, mostly uphill along the stream, to a huge meadow where we were going to fly fish for trout... -
Christmas at Age Five
Posted Monday, December 10, 2018, at 10:30 AMWhen I was about five years old, I was excited to learn that Santa Claus was going to appear at my house early on Christmas Eve to personally hand Christmas gifts to my little brother and me. My parents explained that Santa was doing this as a special treat for us since we didn't have a chimney... -
Men and their Dogs
Posted Monday, November 26, 2018, at 9:14 AMDogs are the role model for living life. You can make a fool of yourself and your dog will make a fool of itself too, while laughing with its tail. HOW TO UNDERSTAND MEN THROUGH THEIR DOGS is a book written by Wendy Diamond, informing women how to judge a man by the breed of dog he owns... -
The White Buffalo
Posted Monday, November 12, 2018, at 5:37 PMThe Lakota Sioux are a nation of Native Americans who roamed the northern plains in and around the Black Hills of South Dakota. They have a prophecy known as the White Buffalo Calf Woman. According to the prophecy, two warriors were out hunting buffalo, approximately 2,000 years ago, when they spotted a white buffalo calf. As they approached the calf, it turned into a beautiful young Indian girl... -
The War to End all Wars
Posted Friday, November 9, 2018, at 11:52 AMSunday, November 11, 2018, is the 100th anniversary of World War I. The war to end all wars officially ended at 11:00 o’clock on the morning of November 11, 1918 -- the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month. It would later be called World War I... -
Humorous Mistakes on Student Essays
Posted Friday, October 19, 2018, at 9:02 AM1Some students have a way of writing things in a slightly different manner than intended, as demonstrated in the following excerpts from tests and essays of eight graders through college, complied by Richard Lederer, a teacher in St Paul... -
Men, Women & Fashion
Posted Sunday, October 7, 2018, at 11:33 AM1When I was a young corporate stooge, I always wore a dark three-piece suit with a flashy necktie. Now that I’m older and wiser, I wonder what took me so long to burn all my neckties. The necktie dates back to 1660 when a crack military regiment from Croatia visited France. They had recently defeated Turkey and were presented to King Louis XIV in Paris where they were honored for their glorious victory... -
Dogs and Cats
Posted Saturday, September 22, 2018, at 2:07 PMDogs are extremely social animals whose psychological welfare is dependent on an association with other dogs in a pack while following the guidance of the pack leader. Domestic dogs rely on a human master as a surrogate pack leader. Properly trained, a man can be dog's best friend... -
Three Grandfathers
Posted Sunday, September 9, 2018, at 3:36 PMEvery now and then something happens in a person’s life that becomes a turning point. When I was in the second grade, my family lived on the edge of a small town in Wisconsin. There was only one other kid my age in the area. His name was James and he was extremely intelligent, a true genius. His father was a surgeon and his mother was a southern aristocrat. They lived in a palace compared to my family’s digs... -
How to Live a Long Life
Posted Tuesday, August 28, 2018, at 9:29 AMThe top ten ways to live longer, according to Forbes.com, are as follows: 1) Don't oversleep – A study in the ARCHIVES OF GENERAL PSYCHOLOGY reported that people who sleep between 6 and 7 hours per night live the longest. BB -- Personally, I sleep about 10 hours per night. That way, I only need to take two naps during the day, plus I spend so much time in bed that I'm not as likely to be run over by a truck... -
Zone of Silence
Posted Wednesday, August 8, 2018, at 12:42 PMIn 1970, a U.S. Athena missile was fired from a location in Utah, scheduled to land in the White Sands Missile Base in New Mexico. However, it went about 900 miles off course, without apparent explanation, and crashed in the Sonora Desert in Mexico, over a hundred miles south of the Big Bend area in Texas... -
A Dragonfly Tattoo
Posted Saturday, July 21, 2018, at 10:21 AMRecently, there have been several dozen dragonflies randomly circling individually in my backyard, in and around my pond. Dragonflies hunt in flight and eat a wide variety of insects, including mosquitoes. They are welcome to stop by anytime and hang out at my place... -
The Path of Life
Posted Wednesday, July 11, 2018, at 1:47 PMLife is a journey without a map. You come to a fork in the road of life and choose a direction. When things that once shocked you begin to amuse you, you've crossed the first barrier of true wisdom. Every time I reach a new age in life, I spend a long day dwelling on my painful past, blessing the present and ignoring the future. Then I wake up the next day and start all over again... -
Mysterious Cycle of Human Events
Posted Saturday, June 30, 2018, at 11:57 AMEvery generation imagines itself to be more intelligent than the previous one and wiser than the next one. They revolt against the status quo and seek new solutions to age-old conundrums. Every generation needs a new revolution. William Strauss and Neil Howe, in their 1997 book titled THE FOURTH TURNING, theorize that society has a collective personality that changes on a regular cyclical basis... -
The Senile Seven
Posted Monday, June 18, 2018, at 8:20 AMMy father passed away in December of 2011 at age 92 and my mother passed away in June of 2015 at age 97 -- young at heart, too ornery to die. Originally from Stevens Point, Wisconsin, we moved to Kansas City when I was in 4th grade and moved to Minneapolis after I finished 5th grade. When my father retired sometime in the 1980s, my parents moved to Cherokee Village, Arkansas, where they enjoyed their golden years...
View all blog posts (511)